The casting of dice is an ancient sport. Over the centuries, both the dice and the methods of using them have undergone constant change. Dice, for instance, have evolved from crudely marked bits of rock and bone to the precisely dimensioned and manufactured cubes of modern time. Originally, it is presumed that dice were agitated in the cupped hand, as is most commonly done in the present day game known as craps. With time, different and more sophisticated methods of dice agitation were developed. Random distribution of the numerical values read from the cast dice was a principal objective.
One of the early devices employed to agitate and cast dice was the dice cup, which is still in use today. In using the dice cup, the player inserts the dice in the cup, shakes the cup, and casts the dice. In this manner, the dice are agitated and a random distribution of their values is obtained when they are cast. One advantage of the dice cup is that large numbers of dice may be cast conveniently. A further advantage of the dice cup is that it substantially eliminates control of the dice by a skilled manipulator. As is generally the case with hand-agitated dice, dice from a dice cup are cast onto a relatively smooth surface such as a table or floor. After casting, the dice must be manually reinserted into the dice cuup for the next cast.
The dice cup does not, however, solve all the problems inherent in games in which the result depends upon random number distribution. Because of the necessary manual handling of the dice, one or more dice may be surreptitiously replaced with unauthorized substitutes to alter the statistical distribution of the numerical values obtained in play.
Partly as a solution to the problems which arise when dice are manually handled, devices have been developed in the prior art for playing dice games without recourse to manual casting of the dice. The most basic of these prior art devices is an hour-glass shaped cage having flat ends. The cage is mounted vertically and pivots about a horizontal axis through its medial portion. When the cage is rotated about its axis, the upper and lower portions are inverted and the dice fall from the upper to lower portions and undergo agitation. Because no manual handling is required, the possibility of replacement of the dice is obviated. A problem associated with the cage device described above is that the size of the cage must be substantial in order to provide a sufficient height to agitate the dice adequately. Furthermore, the long cage assembly necessarily traverses a large arc during rotation and thus requires substantial free space in its vicinity.
A further problem associated with such prior art devices is that the dice game participants may not get a clear view of the dice within the tumbling apparatus, due to the structure of the cage itself and possible low ambient illumination.